La Plata
7 June 2005 (Tuesday) – La Plata, Argentina
OK. Today, the weather is hot! The weather in Buenos Aires has been mad mad mad. 1 week before I arrived, the temperature dropped to 1ºC. Today, I would learn later, it reached 28ºC. Last Thursday, they were shocked about the temperature reaching 27ºC for winter and today, it was another day with this temperature.
I took advantage of the bright and beautiful day and fled the house rather early, getting caught up in the morning rush-hour to Retiro to grab an intercity bus to La Plata, a city about 50km away.
La Plata felt really tranquil compared to the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires. It is indeed a very pretty city with gardens, fountains and lovely architecture in the centre. The cathedral at one end of the town is Gothic-styled. I felt like I was in Europe. There are also a few other beautiful buildings of French architecture, like the Legislature.
At the other end of the building is the Paseo de Bosque which is an immense garden housing the zoo and the Museum of Natural Science. The museum was where I was heading as Claudia had strongly recomended it. Indeed, it is worth the 4 pesos entrance fee. The huge, musty museum houses numerous skeleton structures of dinosaurs and all sort of mammals, reptiles, fish, etc… both still existing or extinct. Upstairs, there were many displays related to anthropology, ethnography, precolumbian civilisation. There was quite a few displays of mummies, babies and adults.
There is also a Museum of Natural Science in Buenos Aires, near Parque Centenario. Both have their strengths, and the one in La Plata is indeed very good as well.
By the time I returned to Buenos Aires, I was again caught up in the evening rush hour. I was lucky to catch 106 at Retiro when it was empty. Thereafter, rows and rows of people kept piling in and we all turned into sardines.
Buenos Aires bus transportation is very cheap, 75 centavos for shorter distance and 80 centavos (less than US$0.30) for the rest of the distance. It only accepts coins, which is bad as some days I just run out of coins, but provides change to 1 peso, which is great. However, if you have smaller denominations, you need to drop them in one by one. This can take some time. Especially if some coins keep getting rejected repeatedly. So, during the rush-hour in Buenos Aires city, the bus can stop for a very long time as one by one, each passenger in the long queue, drops in the coins one by one.
But everyone is really patient about it.
Tags: 01) Imagining Argentina, Buenos Aires, La Plata
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